Los Angeles

A Gold Mine of Restaurants in Downtown LA

Jonathan Gold is the Pulitzer Prize-winning restaurant critic for the Los Angeles Times who publishes a 101 Best Restaurants list each year. From cheap eats to fine dining, the annual roundup showcases the food critic’s favorite places to eat and the best of the LA region’s culinary scene.

Over the past 12 years, Jonathan Gold has featured 367 different restaurants on his lists with locations ranging from Costa Mesa to Santa Monica. We examined the lists and, according to our analysis, determined that Downtown Los Angeles now has the highest concentration of top restaurants.

That wasn’t always the case. In 2005, there were just seven restaurants in Downtown LA featured on Jonathan Gold’s 101 list. But by 2017, there were 21:

Bestia

Church & State

Officine Brera

Manuela

Guerrilla Tacos

Redbird

P.Y.T.

Spring

Orsa & Winston

Grand Central Market

Otium

Rossoblu

71Above

Rice Bar

Little Sister

Q Sushi

Shibumi

Drago Centro

Broken Spanish

Lasa*

Howlin’ Ray’s*

*Chinatown

“The rise of restaurant density in Downtown LA mirrors the overall development renaissance downtown,” said Eric Kenas, Market Director, Research at Cushman & Wakefield. “As the volume of projects increases, it has also spurred a movement in the food world, drawing chefs and diners alike to the flourishing area.”

Check out more of our key findings from Jonathan Gold’s 101 Best Restaurants !